Hand-held portable electronic devices are used in a variety of applications, such as, for inventory control or customer service transactions, or various other commercial applications to serve as data input or output devices for central data processing and control stations. For example, the portable device may provide a route or sales person with data to the product information, cost information, customer information as well as inventory information relating to the availability of products. Thus, the compact size and ease of operation of the hand-held portable electronic device is important to its function.
Solid state memory in the form of flash memory is generally the storage of choice in a variety of mobile and hand-held devices. Unlike RAM, which is also solid-state memory, flash memory is non-volatile, which retains its stored data even after power is turned off. Typically, flash memory cards are freely inserted into an open slot formed in the surface of a handheld device. The only protection from contamination of the slot and the memory card is a moveable flap. This flap is not able to provide a tight seal to mitigate dust, moisture, and other contaminates from entering the memory card slot. Such contamination can cause permanent damage to the memory card and/or to the hand-held portable electronic device.
Also included in many portable electronic devices is a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card, which stores all the subscriber-related information data for the portable electronic device. Generally, SIM cards are available in two types, namely a postage stamp type and a credit card type. Conventional SIM cards, regardless of their type, typically occupy a relatively large area, which is contradictory to the current trend toward manufacturing more compact, lightweight terminals. In the postage stamp type SIM card, a SIM card reader is installed on a main PCB (Printed Circuit Board) of a body and the SIM card is electrically connected to the SIM card reader by means of a SIM card contact device. Consequently, the SIM card reader and contact device occupy a relatively large area on the body of the portable electronic device, limiting the compactness of the device body, thereby decreasing product competitiveness.
Another feature available for hand-held portable electronic devices is a touch screen and pen combination, which allows a user to input information to the device without the need for keyboard and/or mouse interfaces. Clip configurations are typically provided on the hand-held devices to hold the pen in place. The user is thus required to pull on the pen in order to remove it from the clip configuration.
Accordingly, there is a strong need in the art to provide an improved housing configuration for a hand-held portable electronic device to overcome the aforementioned problems.